scholar

  • 3 Posts
  • 56 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • In a nutshell, a backdoor was intentionally planted by a malicious actor in xz Utils, an open-source data compression utility widely used in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. This discovery was made by Andres Freund, a developer and engineer working on Microsoft’s PostgreSQL offerings. He was troubleshooting performance problems on a Debian system. Specifically, SSH logins were consuming excessive CPU cycles and generating errors with Valgrind, a memory debugging tool. Through sheer luck and Freund’s careful eye, he eventually discovered that these issues were the result of updates made to xz Utils. Upon closer inspection, he found that updates to xz Utils were the result of a maliciously inserted backdoor. The backdoor, present in xz Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, manipulated the sshd executable, allowing anyone with a predetermined encryption key to upload and execute arbitrary code on affected devices.











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      • They go through the Star Wars movies from a book lore perspective, point out flaws in the writing and lore-breaking, and offer suggestions on how the sequels could have been handled differently. They did The Last Jedi, and I really enjoyed it. They also have some cool videos on podracing, ships, and guns.
    • Defunctland
      • History of Disney rides, takes the culture of the time into consideration, the video on queues is a must-watch, imo.
    • Draw Like a Sir
      • Really solid drawing tutorials that aren’t very complicated, takes the time to break down high-level concepts into simple exercises. Overall a really fun channel to watch, even if you’re not into drawing.
    • Fredrik Knudson
      • Long, deep-dive videos into internet history/culture. Rare uploads, but a banger every time.
    • James Lee
      • Newgrounds-era animator with amazing compositing techniques and a very unique animation style where he inserts himself into his videos as a very animated caricature of himself.
    • Lemmino
      • Like the History Channel but without the fluff. Cool topics, very nice animations, high production, high-quality content.
    • MattKC
      • Known for a Lego Island decompilation project. Also does retro console repair from time to time — very fun watch.
    • Paper Will
      • Rare uploads. but interesting video essay topics. High quality and a nice watch during lunch.
    • Pecos Hank
      • A storm chaser who is Reed Timmer’s ying to his yang. Very chill, documentary-quality footage featuring himself playing guitar and talking about the beauty and power of nature. You’ve probably seen his footage on the Weather Channel!
    • Technology Connections
      • Great deep dives into random technology, old and new. The video on the popcorn button on microwaves is really good (I think that may be on his second channel?)